Report Says Black Children Not Served By Transracial Adoption

The report, released by the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, recommends major changes to the 1994 Multi-Ethnic Placement Act.

The Associated Press reports that critics of the law, which prohibits race from being taken into account in most adoptions, say it places too much emphasis on “color blindness” and not enough on race-oriented education.

White parents adopting a black child, for instance, cannot be required to undergo race-oriented training, possibly accounting for the fact that minority children adopted transracially develop more behavioral and other problems than those adopted by parents of the same race as the child.

“The view that we can be colorblind is a wonderful, idealistic perspective, but we don’t live there,” said Adam Pertman, the Donaldson Institute’s executive director.

The crux of the problem may be that a disproportionately high number of black children are in foster care. U.S. laws require discounting race in placing those children, but some believe race, or at least race education, should be a major factor.

The National Association of Black Social Workers, for instance, recommends “placing children of African ancestry with relatives or unrelated families of the same face and culture for adoption.” The group supports the changes suggested to the Multi-Ethnic Placement Act.

The Associated Press reports that 32 percent of the 510,000 children in foster care in 2006 were black, compared to 15 percent of all U.S. children. The new report suggests that state agencies should recruit more adoptive parents of the same race as the children, and also calls for better funded efforts to recruit minority parents.

The New York Times addressed the complex issue of adoptions and race—particularly white families adopting black children—in an August 2006 story: “Advocates of black adoption criticize adoption agencies as not doing enough to recruit black families. But one strategy agencies use, in part, to recruit black families—reducing fees for African-American adoptions—seems to some critics like a literal devaluing of black children. … Both black and white families, at times, feel discriminated against.”

The National Association of Black Social Workers urges same-race placements for adoptive children in their “Preserving Families of African Ancestry” policy. The group writes that transracial adoption of an African American child should be considered only after unsuccessful same-race placements have been reviewed by representatives of the African American community.

One of the more well known cases of transracial adoption occurred in 1995, when an American Indian woman and white man in Texas who fought to adopt two black children prompted a lawsuit over the constitutionality of limits on interracial adoptions. The suit charged that Texas authorities had denied the couple’s request to the boys because social workers wanted to place them with a black family. The case generated national attention and prompted many discussions on the question of adoptions and race.

A New York Sun editorial suggests that the report detracts from the idealism the country strives to uphold: “When the government starts making race-based placements for children needing families, it’s an abandonment of idealism that goes a step too far. We may not live in a colorblind world, but changing the law to make it less colorblind would be a step backward.”

In a December 2006 column in The Washington Post, David Nicholson writes that subtle racist attitudes may be the reason so many white couples adopt overseas, ignoring the countless American black children that need homes: “It may not be the dictionary definition of racism, but it’s one more piece of evidence of how, years after the civil rights movement, blacks and whites have failed to engage on that deeply human level that would allow more whites to say, ‘Yes, I’ll take this child into my kitchen. And my heart.’”

The case of a gay couple that has helped raise approximately 100 children in the Netherlands highlights the fact, that despite increasing public acceptance, gay couples often face opposition when trying to adopt, and debate continues.

The original report, Finding Families for African American Children: The Role of Race and Law in Adoption From Foster Care, is available as a PDF file on the Even B. Donaldson Adoption Institute Web site. According to the site, the report “is the most thorough examination to date of the often-sensitive, controversial issues relating to transracial adoption and calls for major changes to better serve the needs of children of color and to improve their prospects of moving to permanent, loving homes.”

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families provides information about The Multi-Ethnic Placement Act of 1994 on its Web site. A general overview and common questions about the law are included.